My mom loves to travel. She is fortunate enough to be able to see the world and she is also very generous and always thinks of her girls. You see out of the three of us, I for certain am the least traveled. My sister lived in France for 5 years with her family, of course picked up French and could speak it fluently. In my mind that was like a dream. She was living a dream. She missed her family here in the states though and is now back and soon her husband will also be by her side. The paperwork and all the shenanigans to have a family together when each is a citizen of a different county is a big hassle it seems. But after nearly 2 years of paperwork and now finally he has an interview…he will be back with his family where he belongs…and look at that. I got all off track again! My point being this. My mom brings back gifts. Last spring when she visited Italy she brought me back seeds to plant in my garden. Two weekends ago I planted them. They are showing signs of growth and silly me…I didn’t label them so I have no idea really what that one above will be. I know the melon…or it could be zucchini but we will see. I plan to put them in the real ground this weekend and it will be so fun to watch them grow and be able to eat the fruit/veggies they will produce. My mom said Italy had the best tasting produce ever. I shared these seeds too with my friend Ronda, my Aunt and Mama Bear next door. There were plenty to go around, plenty more still in fact. I’m sure I will be sharing throughout this spring and summer the progress of our garden. I did figure out something good recently too. My butterfly plant had been infested with these tiny bugs…covered!! The same bugs that destroyed my watermelon plant a few seasons back and the same bugs that seem to love my roses. My solution is very natural and non toxic too. I took peppermint soap, diluted with water and sprayed the plant. The plant survived…the bugs did not!!! So this is my plan to protect my melon this season. I’ll keep you posted. xo

This juice almost matches my dark orange walls! I’m not happy with the picture but Austin really wanted to drink this juice so I could only take a quick snap shot. My friend Katesent me a pin yesterday and said this recipe reminded her of me. I had to try it. I’m always talking about getting my glow on! I have been drinking GREEN juice for weeks now and a change sounded like a great idea. I didn’t follow the exact recipe because the quantities sounded like it was for an entire family. This is what I put in ours and I always add the chia seeds. Austin siad he loves the chia in there because it’s like boba;)

7 carrots

a knob of ginger

2 gala apples

5 wedges of pineapple

the juice of half a big lime

and two spoonfuls of chia seeds

BEST juice yet! However it takes a lot to make two glasses so this one will be a treat every so often. Not too sweet and nice and tart! Thank you KATE!

COOKED: I’m always cooking but my favorite now is throwing things on the BQ

DRANK: This month I have been juicing lots and lots, trying to get my glow back

READ: (reading still) Brave book and one called Self Matters by Dr. Phil

WANTED: a record player…yep. Still want one of these. Have a perfect spot for it.

PLAYED: with my niece and sister-n-law as we shared a photo with each other each day

DECIDED: I want to paint my dining room gray and not peacock or white

WISHED: for more rain…yes still wishing

ENJOYED: a BQ with friends from work, a nice weekend in Landers and a moon date

WONDERED: If my medical test results will be nice and normal

PONDERED: how my garden grows – it’s so mind blowing to me

STARTED: to paint a new/old book case happy yellow…finished it too

WATCHED: 7 Little Johnstons. Super cool family.

HOPED: for the trees to show signs of life

NEEDED: a new routine

SMELLED: BQ and fire pit smells of our California spring

WORE: new dress and jeans from a friend who donated a nice handful of clothes to me

NOTICED: trash can be picked up and photographed as “art”

KNEW: that I would love a new/old/free book case to house all our BOOKS!

THOUGHT: How great it will be when my sister’s husband returns to the states, he got his interview!!

ADMIRED: Tim and Sarah for taking such good care of H

SORTED: through my books and decided to donate a big box full

BOUGHT: a few succulents to plant

FINALLY: changed medical groups, had a physical, blood work and mammogram. Self Care.

DISLIKED: my random judgmental thoughts

FELT: gratitude when all the babies were born in March starting with Fox Quinn, then Miracle Lynn and last to arrive in March, our families little warrior Caiden Chad who is a Gastroschisis baby and had to have surgery when he arrived but the little warrior baby is healing and doing better day by day.

FOLLOWING: Jesus

SNACKED: still eating apples and drinking juice the green kind

WISHED: bad things didn’t have to happen

LISTENED: to the quite which can be good every so often

DISCOVERED: that “crazy is overrated”

SCRIPTURE: Galatians 5:22-23 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I have loved this scripture for so long. It’s so very true and you know what’s even more special for me, our wedding anniversary is 5/22…so it helps me to remember the reference.

We took a small trip to the desert this weekend. Worth the trip don’t you think? All along the ride there were small desert flowers at the side of the road, and the cactus with the vibrant pink flowers were ready to explode. While these bushes filled with yellow flowers were scattered about. The birds were singing and the desert was blooming. I was glad to visit. A long time ago I didn’t like the desert. I was naive. I just thought it was dry, dirt and had little to offer. Thank goodness as I have added years I realize it’s gorgeous. Many of the plants remind me of under the sea. It’s really quote beautiful the brown and the blue. I’m so happy we get wiser as we age. It’s an upside.

I have not had a chance to look into making my blog a dot.orgbut in the meantime.I had a productive spring weekend.What happened?

I painted a bookcase yellow

A chocolate cake was baked

We found the sweet blue eggs that are waiting to hatch

I planted the wild flowers for Aunt Louise

The yard was mowed

Good food was eaten

A little Laundry was done

Motorcycle man got a ride or two in

The jeep was smogged and tags paid

We listened

We prayed

We lived another day

And this week I hope to share with you, or anyone who cares to see… how the bookcase is coming along.Totally free, completely useful and motorcycle man said “you made it look pretty” and that made me happy.

Here is my Sunday video.A little slow and melancholy because it was dedicated to my great Aunt who left us in the fall and today we planted her wild flowers in hopes that they will bloom.The secret word for my video…..is…..love

“By supporting our unique community you have participated in something amazing! You connected with a person & TRUSTED them to bring you something to enrich your life!” this was the message

When I got home from work today and after picking up Moon Rebel, there were two packages sitting in my kitchen. One , the oils I ordered for my mom and two, an unknown big brown box, mighty big box for what I found inside. It came from a place in Newport Beach, “hey, that’s not too far from me!” The company, “Simply Straws” Inside the box and wrapped carefully in lots of brown paper was a glass mug, a jar mug, with a lid and hole for a straw and a glass straw. I have never drank out a glass straw before! I had made juice this morning for breakfast for me and first-born and I thought…why not make a second batch so I can drink out of this amazing mug. And so I did.

I rinsed my produce first.

then I poured it into my new really cool mug (it fit perfect). thank you simply strawsand thank you mystery friend! I may have an inkling who they may be…just maybe?? Did I mention I love to drink my juice from straws and now I can stop using the plastic straws I buy and my sweet friend Miss Moonspinner recently gave me a straw cleaner. This will be just perfect.

I’m going to be painting my book-case today so I will be busy but I just wanted to share the good news. That the community in which I belong to is very kind, very big-hearted and I’m very thankful for them. I think my juice tastes better this way in this cool mug with the glass straw. Yep, I’m sure of it.

Lastly I have been researching how to move my blog to a .org so I can have more control. I wanted to give plug-ins a try today and realized because I use a .com with wordpress, I can’t use plug-ins. And in case you are wondering what plug-ins are, welp, I don’t really know exactly. It all started because I wanted to add that little pin on my pictures that you click on it and pin photo’s to pinterest. I need a plug-in for that. So today I will also be researching what that really means and how to possibly move my blog so I can make it more my own. I think it’s time.